The 2026 Tournament of Art part 1

 Earlier this evening we had the tournament announcement show, where all the participating schools in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament are announced.  It is my tradition to post here how many of the participating schools are also colleges I have an art connection to.  That would be schools I have exhibited at, been published by, have taught at, appeared as an artist, or been collected by.  There are always a few, some years more than others.

This year, there are three colleges that are in the tournament and are schools that are among my art schools, and one school of interest.  The three that are legitimate art schools for me are Northern Iowa (12 seed out of the East), where I had an exhibition and at least one publication (maybe a second, but I never saw it), Villanova (8 seed out of the West), where I had an exhibition, and Illinois (3 seed out of the South), where I had an exhibition.  All of these occurred before I had this blog, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  The college of interest is VCU (11 seed out of the South), which I never attended, though everyone I met at William and Mary who learned I was an art major thought I should have gone there.  I did learn a few years ago that not only is VCU still considered the top art school in Virginia, but also it was originally founded as a branch of William and Mary (which I did attend) and remained part of it until spun off to be its own school.  But I have no connections since it became its own place.

How many of these posts I will make depends on how many games these schools win.  If all lose in the first two rounds (the first four day weekend of the tournament), I'll be back here once to report it.  If any make it to the second weekend, you'll get at least 3 posts.  Of all the schools, Illinois is seeded the highest, and thus has the best chance to make out of the first weekend, but there are all kinds of surprises in the tournament, so you never know.